Contact centers are employed by many enterprises to service customer contacts. A typical contact center includes a switch and/or server to receive and route incoming contacts and one or more resources, such as human agents and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units, to service the incoming contacts. It is common for a contact center to initially assign an incoming contact to an IVR to collect personal information from the contactor and thereafter assign the contact to be serviced to an agent having the appropriate skills based on the collected personal information.
An IVR typically uses a menu structure to obtain the desired information from a contactor. A typical menu structure is configured in a tree-type structure with numerous branches possible depending on the option selected. For example, a level of an IVR option menu may say to the contactor “Press 1 for customer service”, “Press 2 for sales”, and “Press 3 for product service”. If the contactor, presses “2”, the contactor may be provided with a next option level that may say “Press 1 for toy sales”, “Press 2 for board game sales”, and “Press 3 for computer game sales.” An option may be selected by pressing a key on the keypad of the phone, which generates a DTMF signal, and/or voicing the number of the option, which is captured at the contact center by a speech recognition engine.
Navigating through a long, complicated IVR menu structure can be a frustrating experience for contactors, causing a high incidence of dropped calls and higher levels of customer dissatisfaction. For example, when calling into an IVR, the contactor often has to wait and listen to most of the options provided before choosing which option is the most appropriate one for the purpose of the contact. At times, there are so many choices on a given option level that the contactor may have forgotten the earlier choices before he or she is able to make a decision. This may happen for example when a contactor is uncertain about which option is correct for his or her needs. Forgetting the earlier options requires the contactor to listen to all of the options at the option level a second time. Moreover, when listening to the various options in the presence of background noise, the contactor may be unable to hear some of the voice prompts clearly enough to understand the option.
It is desirable for a contactee to be provided with the various options at each level of the menu not only audibly but also visually to avoid customer confusion and reduce customer frustration.